584 
EXPERIMENTS ON DISINFECTION. 
studied. I am prolonging my remarks far beyond what I thought I 
should, and could go further, but having dealt with this subject on a 
previous occasion in one of my parliamentary reports, I do not desire to 
take up so much of your time now. I thank you for your attention, and 
observe there are resolutions and propositions to be put before the 
meeting which must also occupy some time, but I hope to meet many 
of you now present as well as others in the district at your homes, when 
I shall be happy to do all in my power to render you what professional 
assistance I can. I should regret to leave the Colony without the hope 
and feeling of assurance that my visit here had proved of lasting benefit, 
therefore I will just add, any gentleman having cases of sickness among 
his stock of whatever kind, whether sheep, cattle, horses or ostriches, I 
shall do my best to get to his place to see the same, as by such practical 
work more good will arise than by many personal or guessed opinions 
given upon the symptoms you may describe, be such description ever so 
elaborate or apparently correct. From the sick animal itself, more 
practical and I trust permanently useful information will be gained.” 
EXPERIMENTS ON DISINFECTION. 
Two sets of important researches on disinfection have been 
lately going on at Berlin. In both, the test of the efficacy 
of the particular disinfectant used has been the effect pro¬ 
duced by it either in destroying bacteria and vibriones in 
putrid fluids exposed to its action, or in preventing their 
development in a form of “ Pasteur’s fluid,” in which the 
objects that had undergone disinfection in various degrees 
were immersed. 
The first experiments, those of Dr. Mehlhausen, Director 
of the Charite Hospital, refer chiefly to the disinfection of 
rooms in which scarlet fever and other infectious cases have 
been. The result arrived at is that the most energetic and 
the cheapest disinfectant is sulphurous acid. Chlorine gas 
has the disadvantage of destroying clothes and furniture 
exposed to it, while it is less easy to manipulate, and four 
or five times as expensive as sulphurous acid. Twenty 
grammes of sulphur per cubic metre of space destroy, when 
burnt in a closed room, all bacterial life in sixteen hours. 
Besides blocking up the doors and windows, Mehlhausen 
advises that the room shall be previously warmed, if the 
weather is cold, in order to prevent the gas finding its way 
into the neighbouring apartments. It is also advisable to 
damp the floor before lighting the sulphur, so as to profit 
by the great solubility of sulphurous acid in water. Eight 
hours is long enough to keep the room shut up after the 
sulphur begins to burn, and at the end of that time any 
clothes or bedding in it will be effectually disinfected. Mere 
